Any love for CCT (i.e. changeable white) LED strips?

[Alan Ambrose]

Apart from @Thorfun, I can't see any mentions of CCT LED strips on 't 'ub - i.e. the ones that you can change the colour temperature of from warm to cool white.

 

Any thoughts or experience?

Edited November 15 by Alan Ambrose

[Russell griffiths]

What do you want to know, I’ve got about 12m of it in a kitchen 

fitted in a small aluminium track. 
all works from an app on the I pad and switched from the wall so the last setting is remembered. 
the LGBGT multi colour ones are ridiculously expensive compared to them. 

[Alan Ambrose]

@Russell griffiths - do you actually change the colour much and/or do you have it on a schedule?

[Russell griffiths]

2 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

@Russell griffiths - do you actually change the colour much and/or do you have it on a schedule?

The white ones we don’t alter much, chilled out mellow white in all the glass cabinets and on the ornaments. 
 

the RGB ones we have we mess with loads more, but that’s probably just the novelty, we haven’t moved in yet. 

[-rick-]

My aim for any new install is to have cct lights. I want them for three main reasons:

 

1. As dawn simulation to help me wake up even in the middle of winter with dark mornings. Using home automation to gradually introduce light over a period of time before the alarm goes off. Used to have a wake up light that does similar but expect an installed version with bright LEDs to be better.
 

2. As daylight augmentation during winter. I hate the dark days when cloud comes out and it’s dark enough inside to need to turn the light on but when you do the lights have such a different tone that I feel it better to close the curtains even hours before dusk. Again with automation and light sensors I believe it should be possible to have the lights turn on ct matched to the daylight and boost the light without feeling the jarring effect.

 

3. As dusk simulation. As per (1) but the other way round with ct moving from cool to warm as the evening goes on and help the body naturally prepare for sleep. In this case it’s moving dusk later during the dark months.

 

* I’m not really bothered by multicoloured lights though do like the idea of having red low level lights come on dimly if I wake up and move around in the middle of the night. Suspect not worth the hassle and will just use very dim white for this.

Edited November 15 by -rick-
Add bit on Red light and fix spelling

[Mike]

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

1. As dawn simulation to help me wake up even in the middle of winter with dark mornings. Using home automation to gradually introduce light over a period of time before the alarm goes off. Used to have a wake up light that does similar but expect an installed version with bright LEDs to be better.

I'd be with you for at least the fade-up feature, given a suitable controller to automate it.

 

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

2. As daylight augmentation during winter. I hate the dark days when cloud comes out and it’s dark enough inside to need to turn the light on but when you do the lights have such a different tone that I feel it better to close the curtains even hours before dusk.

I hate dark days too, so if the alternative was a fixed CCT of 3,000 K or less, then this would be useful. However, with my personal preference for 4,000K I never have a desire to close the curtains before dusk.

 

1 hour ago, -rick- said:

3. As dusk simulation. As per (1) but the other way round with ct moving from cool to warm as the evening goes on and help the body naturally prepare for sleep. In this case it’s moving dusk later during the dark months.

I can see the utility of this for some people. Though, as a night-owl, it wouldn't suit me at all, at least not until the last few minutes of the day.

 

6 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Any thoughts or experience?

In short, I think that the value of changeable CCT lighting depends on how you like your lighting; I'm not a fan of cool lighting (except in limited circumstances) nor of warm lighting (unless it's in an old cottage or the result of real candles), but if you are, then go for it - in which case I'd recommend applying it to all lighting (that will be switched on together) so that you don't end up with an odd mix of colour temperatures.

 

Edited November 15 by Mike

[-rick-]

10 hours ago, Mike said:

I hate dark days too, so if the alternative was a fixed CCT of 3,000 K or less, then this would be useful. However, with my personal preference for 4,000K I never have a desire to close the curtains before dusk.

 

If 4000k works from dawn to dusk for you then yes that’s a cheaper alternative.

 

10 hours ago, Mike said:

I can see the utility of this for some people. Though, as a night-owl, it wouldn't suit me at all, at least not until the last few minutes of the day.

I’m mostly a night owl too, but I think there is value in having a way to subtly wind down near bedtime and the older I get the more I realise how lighting impacts that.

 

10 hours ago, Mike said:

in which case I'd recommend applying it to all lighting (that will be switched on together) so that you don't end up with an odd mix of colour temperatures.

absolutely. Mismatched temperature lighting is awful. Bulbs is the difficult aspect. LED strips are cheap and easy to do as CCT but I’ve still not settled on the best way to do temp changing bulbs as I’d rather not have smart bulbs but smart controllers, dumb bulbs. After the last conversation we had on this topic here I’ve started considering buying non cct bulbs and gutting them to replace the LEDs with CCT ones and controlling them with a custom controller as mad as that sounds because I’ve not seen products that do what I want.

[Spinny]

I agree CCT bulbs with remote control are the real problem. Many manufacturers make CCT switcheable downlights which can be manually switched at the ceiling fitting. The continuing lack of zigbee etc smart lights is testament to the backward nature of the industry.

Many smart bulbs e.g. GU10 are dim giving only 350-400lm and IMO anything less than 600lm+ is not really bright enough - at least with higher ceilings and when you want bright task lighting.

 

i am planning to put 2 LED strips into some of my profiles - 1 cob addressable RGB to use for colour chasing etc - and another cob CCT alongside for good tunable whites. I have tested out, but not yet installed so cannot comment on level of use.

 

In general the white colour matching issue is a PITA, and bright dimmable remotely controllable CCT lights with highish CRI's are the required answer, but with seemingly no-one actually making them in bulb or integrated downlight form.

[Stevieb12345]

My entire house has CCT lights, some with colour. Mostly Philips hue white ambiance, Lifx colour, or 24v CCT+RGB. They all work with home assistant and use an integration called adaptive lighting. I have them set to 2000k-4000k and they automatically adjust colour and brightness between sunrise and sunset.

[Stevieb12345]

[Alan Ambrose]

@Stevieb12345 can I ask what hardware you use to drive the strips? All on separate power supplies, or from one?

[Stevieb12345]

Different power supplies. Left side is a Mean well HLG-150-A and right side HGL-240-A. 

Both have a Gledopto ZigBee 5 In 1 LED Smart Controller.

[-rick-]

2 hours ago, Stevieb12345 said:

They all work with home assistant and use an integration called adaptive lighting.

 

Good to be reminded of this (pretty sure I was previously aware but had forgotten).

 

2 hours ago, Stevieb12345 said:

I have them set to 2000k-4000k and they automatically adjust colour and brightness between sunrise and sunset.

 

How do you find it?

 

@Alan Ambrose Curious what your plans/thoughts are?

[Alan Ambrose]

@-rick- Yeah, following the discussion above, which is very interesting, I’m tempted to use 24V CCT LED strips up high and shining upwards onto the ceiling so you can’t see the LEDs directly, only the reflected light. We have this kind of directed light in our present place but using ordinary cheap spotlights. I might lean towards central 24V power with the controllers all in one place and run control wires from the physical controls (just switches & volume knobs, nothing fancy) from the rooms to the controllers. Add a bit of scheduled colour control by app like @Stevieb12345 has done. I see that Loxone (I won’t use those, crazy expensive) has max 5m 24V strips, so I’m planning wiring around the same lengths. A couple of positions for pendant lamps (24V CCT if we can find them) and we’re done 😃.

[-rick-]

25 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

I’m tempted to use 24V CCT LED strips up high and shining upwards onto the ceiling so you can’t see the LEDs directly, only the reflected light.

 

Similar to my thoughts. There are some interesting plaster in profiles around that are worth looking at. Sorry, no links as it was a while ago, cost from cheap to ridiculous depending on your asthetic tastes. The other alternative I've looked at is doing similar but shining up (45o) from dropped ceiling details. Either way, conceptually I like the idea but when I've seen examples I've not been that impressed. I think a lot depends on the design and the other lighting in the room.

 

25 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

physical controls (just switches & volume knobs, nothing fancy

 

Worth working up a prototype of this. If using volume controls (potentiometers I guess?) how will you integrate that into the drivers? Most controllers I've looked at (not a huge number) will either want mains dimming, instructions from a smart system (dmx, dali, knx, ethernet), a PWM signal or a 0-10V signal. None of which you get from a simple potentiometer without additional work. I'm pretty sure I've seen you post knowledgeable stuff about electronics before so I'm guessing you know this and were simplifying. But prototype definitely worth it in anycase.

 

25 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

max 5m 24V strips, so I’m planning wiring around the same lengths.

 

Worth planning on multiple power feed points to a strip. You can buy good high CRI CCT strips in much longer lengths than 5m giving you the flexibility to cut them up as desired. No harm in multiple power feeds (from the same controller) to a single continuous strip. Better to over provision than under.

 

25 minutes ago, Alan Ambrose said:

A couple of positions for pendant lamps (24V CCT if we can find them) and we’re done 😃.

 

The fallback is standard 'smart' bulbs (Hue, etc).

[MikeSharp01]

On 15/11/2025 at 14:18, Russell griffiths said:

ll works from an app on the I pad and switched from the wall so the last setting is remembered. 
the LGBGT multi colour ones are ridiculously expensive compared to them. 

What does the LGBGT stand for here cos I am blowed if I can track its meaning down.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said:

What does the LGBGT stand for here cos I am blowed if I can track its meaning down.

All the colours of the 🌈 basically

 

@Russell griffiths has a little black dress. 

[Tetrarch]

I've got CCT's everywhere downstairs

 

I have way too much lighting anyway. I have 17 RGB downlights that are actually not on very often but are great for a party

 

I have CCT LED's in three skylights and under the kitchen cupboards all wired to the same wireless switch so that they all work together. We use the different colours frequently, sometime to soften the light for the evening and sometimes just aid close work over the island

 

We also have three pendant ring lights that have CCT functionality - again these are really good for mood setting of an evening

 

Regards

 

Tet 

[Stevieb12345]

22 hours ago, -rick- said:

 

Good to be reminded of this (pretty sure I was previously aware but had forgotten).

 

 

How do you find it?

 

@Alan Ambrose Curious what your plans/thoughts are?

I’ve been using it for years and it works great for me. It has so many settings to get it just how you like it.